TikTok has finalized its U.S. joint venture, ending saga over its fate

The long and winding road over the fate of TikTok — the enormously popular social video platform that has been a force in American youth culture and entertainment — has come to an end.

After years of questions about TikTok’s future in America, the social media platform and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have finalized the app’s U.S. joint venture.

The announcement closes the chapter on a saga that began six years ago, when President Trump during his first term sought to ban the platform, citing national security concerns involving ByteDance.

But Trump shifted his views on the platform after ByteDance and its affiliates agreed to divest majority ownership of U.S. operation to an American-led investor group.

The joint venture deal was established under an executive order signed by Trump in September.

In an announcement posted Thursday, TikTok said the U.S. joint venture now has three managing investors: Silver Lake, Oracle and Emirati investment firm MGX, each holding 15%, with ByteDance retaining 19.9% of investments. The remainder is owned by a host of investment companies, some of which previously invested in ByteDance.

The new firm will be headed by Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety. He will join a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew.

In a Truth Social post, Trump thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping “for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal” and said it was a “dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion.”

“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok!” he wrote. “I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok.”

ByteDance had been under pressure to divest its ownership in the app’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban after Congress passed a law that went into effect a year ago.

“China’s position on TikTok has been consistent and clear,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing, said Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Under new safeguards, there will be more protections for users’ data and algorithms, as well as better content moderation and software assurances, the company said.

The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users,” the company said in its statement Thursday.

These protections will be secured by Oracle’s cloud environment. Oracle provides such services to a number of companies.

The tech company’s Executive Chairman Larry Ellison has also been making headlines for attempting to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery through Paramount.

Some analysts were critical of the new venture, however.

Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at UCLA, said he finds the deal to be “deeply concerning.”

He said TikTok will become more similar to American-owned social media applications when it comes to access to data and how it’s monetized.

“But at the same time, the data is going to be captured by folks like Mr. Ellison, who is very close to the president,” Srinivasan said. “That raises major concerns about the incredibly close affinity the president has with these tech oligarchs.”

Srinivasan also raised concerns that the new ownership could influence what people can see on their algorithms, especially when it comes to global news.

“Our younger people may end up getting manipulated without any disclosure or knowledge,” he said.

Representatives of TikTok and Oracle declined to comment.

In its statement, TikTok said it will “safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation.”

According to TikTok, there are over 200 million U.S. users and 7.5 million businesses that use the platform.

The news, announced last month, comes as a relief to many U.S.-based influencers, many of whom operate in Southern California, who rely on the social media platform for their livelihoods.

The same day the news of the joint venture broke, TikTok hosted its inaugural TikTok Awards at the Hollywood Palladium. Keith Lee, a food reviewer with over 17 million followers, celebrated the announcement among other attendees.

“[TikTok] is the best way to reach people and I know so many people who rely on it to support their families,” said Lee, in an interview with The Times last month. “For me, it’s my career now so I can’t imagine it not being around.”

The app is largely responsible for reshaping the way young Americans shop and consume entertainment. One example of that can be found in the TikTok Shop platform where small businesses and brands sell their products directly to consumers and engage influencers to help with promotion. In many ways, the platform can resemble Gen Z’s version of QVC.

The app’s roots date to 2014, when Musical.ly, an app of a similar nature, was launched in Shanghai. In 2016, Chinese tech company ByteDance launched a similar platform in China called Douyin.

As the apps grew in popularity separately, ByteDance picked up on its potential, purchased Musical.ly in 2017 and combined all these platforms into one, named TikTok. Over the next few years, the app began its rapid ascent, hooking in users with a curated algorithm and viral trends.

The deal removes a shadow that was cast over the future of TikTok, which has become one of the world’s most dominant social media platforms and has a large presence in Culver City.

The company’s business in the U.S. had been clouded for many years amid legislators’ security concerns among legislators about ByteDance’s ties to China.